FAQ: Yes, We Suppirt Kinect

Kairos@lemmy.today to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 1242 points –

::: spoiler Transcription StrangeScaffold [developer] DEC 2 @5:22am

FAQ: Yes, We Support Kinect

Q: ..This game supports Kinect?

Yes!.On PC only, if you plug iri a Kinect 2.0 to-your computer while the game is:apen, you-tan play through the entirety of the game using Kinect controls. Grab meat with your meat harids! Your body is the controller! We live in the future. Good luck.

Q:Is Kinect the optirnal way to play Space Warlord Organ Tradirig Simulator? Absolutely not.

Q: Why would | play a fast-paced reflex-based economic tycoon using Kinect?

| have no earthly idea, but | am personally sending the first person to direct message me documented proof of using a Kinect to play through the entirety of the campaign, (reaching the "The Top 0.1%" reputation level) a $50 Steam gift card. Primarily so I can. meet the kind of person who would do that to themselves, and plead with them for mercy lest they destroy us all.

Q: How did you put Kinect support into a game in 20217

| work with a brilliant, slightly unhinged creative programmer named Sam Chiet,. and one day, at 3 AM, | blearily opened my phone to find a video.of the game working with full functionality on a Kinect. And a tablet. And a Wiimote. You know, for the Nintendo Wii (2007).

He apparently did ail of those experiments in one night just because he cold, and Has since dedicated a large portion of his time to single-handedly becoming the final Kinect developer. | decided the safest option was to stay out of his way.

Q: Why did you put Kinect support into a game in 2021? | embrace the Sun with arms outstretched so that my oblivion will be. one og my own choosing.

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77

i decided the safest option was to stay out of his way.

You chose...wisely.

This is why you should always give your developer "free dev time" where they work on what they feel like, or what they think is important outside of the approved scope.

They have fun and will likely fix something your players will be asking for.

Someone is going to stream that 0.1% run on twitch and market the hell out of your game. Just look at Luality that completed dark souls with a DDR dancepad.

Until recently I worked for a big telecoms company as a software engineer. We had time set aside for self development and non-work projects. Originally it was half a day a week, but we found it better to be a day every fortnight.

You could learn a new programming language or tool, build something just for fun or something you thought was useful for the team (we built a custom dashboard with notices etc., a quiz engine for weekly quizzes), or add functionality to a project that wasn't specced or requested, but you thought could add value.

After a while, a department wide code wars league was set up to challenge and learn, we had a yearly Easter egg hunt that involved solving puzzles to find prizes, people did lightning talks to teach things that they'd learnt, workshops, etc.

So much knowledge, skill and confidence was added to the team that was worth way more than what we'd do on any normal day. I'd recommend it to any technical team to try something similar.

Would love to see this in an architecture team

You've got one day a fortnight to spend arguing about what was worst about Lean Code with some random wanker on the internet

will likely fix something your players will be asking for

Or they will add Kinect support to your game. You never know.

Truly a double edged sword.

I've seen a chick playing 2 darksouls games one with ddr pad and one with controller at the same time fighting bosses lol

Depends on the situation. Sometimes "the boring bits" need to be done. And supporting such an old hardware that nobody has won't pay off in 99.9% of the circumstances. It's basically lightning in a bottle type of deal. Also stuff like this can be done post release among bugfixing to give a dev a break from monotony.

Finally a PM who understands programmers

I truly don't get PMs who themselves haven't done the thing they're now PMing. I like to think I make a decent PM because I was a user, got frustrated, made my own version of the thing that was way faster and easier, that saw some success, I learned a bunch, and now I PM that space after I figured out I had much stronger opinions on what a thing should do/be and why that mattered than then actual implementation.

What game is this exactly? For research purposes

From the article:"On February 10, 2023, user "Swag Gucci Balenciaga Corndog" on Steam completed this bounty and summitted proof of his run."

I could not have imagined a more fitting name if I had been writing this whole episode as a work or fiction. The world can be so fucking delightful at small scales sometimes.

| embrace the Sun with arms outstretched so that my oblivion will be one of my own choosing.

Hot damn! I'll be holding on to that!

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The world needs more unhinged developers like Sam. I wonder what he'll do if we send him a kilo of cocaine.

I feel only slightly less ridiculous asking for Steam Controller support in games 😆 But I will keep asking because I fucking love that controller.

For real. I'm dreading the day mine stops working. It's taken some drops over the years but it's still going strong. Legit one of the best controllers ever made. I will absolutely die on this hill.

If they didn't cost around 120+$ I'd have bought another 3. Instead I just have to buy more Steam Decks :(.

I think they were $5 when they were getting rid of them. Steam links were at least.

I just wish the cap on the stick lasted longer. That rubber dome wore down very fast for me on both of mine.

I bought one when they first came out, and one when they did the $5 liquidation sale when they were discontinued. I wish I'd bought more, just to be safe.

Oh shoot why were they discontinued?

Lack of sales IIRC. They're very neat but kind of niche because of their non-standard layout, they were aiming to be a keyboard/mouse replacement instead of "just another controller". Extremely customizable control schemes too.

Would absolutely love a 2.0 one based off the Steam Deck or something.

I seem to recall a statement made by Gabe that the very conventional control layout of the Steam Deck is in reaction to feedback they got about the Steam Controller, that it needed to have zero learning curve

I actually got kinect sensor recently, because you can use it for bootleg full body tracking in VR. Cost me a total of ÂŖ6 including the power adapter.

It's not great, but better than whatever it is that VRChat does with your limbs by default.

Strop removing the barriers. I don't want to accidently become a vtuber.

Resistance is futile. Becoming a vtuber is as inevitable as evolving into a crab.

Oh no, I was already thinking of multiple legs and chitin.

I have a kinect, I have to try this.

I think it's the Xbox 360 version that works with it, it's called Amethyst.

https://k2vr.tech/

It's not perfect if you get fancy with your poses (it's mostly designed to track a standing body for dance games), and because it works with tracking dots, baggy or fluffy clothing will throw it off. But for ÂŖ6? You're looking at 100 times that for the VIVE alternative.

| embrace the Sun with arms outstretched so that my oblivion will be. one og my own choosing.

Real

That's honestly hilarious and really impressive. I'm pretty sure Kinect still sees use in some R&D and medical scenarios, too. Honestly it was an awesome piece of tech that was wasted on shitty games.

Hey now, just dance with Kinect was genuinely the best way to play that game format (and was before the onset of their subscription platform to access the full song library)

Although, I'm a real sucker for rhythm games so maybe I'm just biased

It's been so long since I heard about the Kinect that I had to look up what it was. That's pretty damn cool. It's like hearing someone decided to add Leap Motion gesture controls to their game because why not?

OMG the leap motion. Ten years ago it was set to revolutionize computer input. Where's now?

In lots of people's drawers when they realized holding their arms up to their monitors all the time was really tiring.

I've seen a couple vtubers use leap for hand tracking.

Nintendo Wii (2007)

wat

Wiimotes work on PC similar to any modern remote. They're refering to that.

I know that. But they got the launch year of the Wii wrong, innit?

International vs US maybe? Or when it was implemented in the PC game perhaps?

After that last answer, I gotta say, I like the jib of his cut.

This man can achieve device compatibility in free time, yet I cannot even do any kind of work properly..

I wish I had a Kinect because it's like the best, self-contained singular device that you can setup FBT with in VR that isn't completely wonky. At least, for the cost that they were when they were still being sold at retail, where it was cheaper than even the cheapest FBT options now. Fuckers were cheap AF considering all the tech in them.

I know right? They are super good for that and I still haven't managed to get my hands on one of the ones with a USB cable because of what people are charging for them used now.

skyrim with kinect was genuinely the best way to play skyrim

My first thought was , lol that'd be funny. And my second thought was, oh shit Skyrim came out at that time.

oh dude it was amazing. no more going through menus to get the shout you wanted, you just shout! wish the game still had that feature

Kinect 2.0 is the one for Xbox One, right? That one has a proprietary plug and needs an adapter of some kind for PC. Finding one now needs some effort. Would have been neat if it supported the Xbox 360 Kinect because it has a standard USB connector.

2.0 is the 360 one, I have one in my basement because Gamestop didn't want it.

Where PS Move

PS move to box in basement of mom house next to old Christmas lights, sister rocking horse, and grandma knitting needles.